A charter for change.

• Author: Koprowicz, Connie
• Position: Charter schools

In East Los Angeles, about a mile and a half from the site of the Rodney King riots, sits Vaughn Street School. Most of the children at this elementary school speak English as their second language and live in neighborhoods most of us would be frightened to walk through. There was a time when the children had to step around a dead body as they approached the school's entryway. It was no one's idea of a healthy learning environment.

In 1992, Vaughn Street's pupils ranked in the ninth percentile in reading -- 91 percent of public school students in America could read better than they -- and the 14th percentile in math. Now, reading and math scores rank in the 47th and 59th percentile respectively. Today, students learn about computers hands-on in the new, $1.6 million Next Century Learning Center. Today, parents from more wealthy neighborhoods want to send their kids to Vaughn.

What spurred the overwhelming changes in this 1,200-pupil, inner-city public school? According to Vaughn Street Principal Yvonne Chan, it was freedom from bureaucracy. "Take off the handcuffs; free my hands so I can do my job," Chan said in Seattle's Rainier Club where she was the keynote speaker this past fall at the National Conference on School Choice, sponsored by Washington's Educational Excellence Coalition.

Vaughn Street Elementary School became California's first charter school in 1992. And it is the charter school law that Chan credits for providing the freedom she needed to turn the school around. In addition to test scores, attendance improved -- so much so that the school receives an additional $300,000 per year in per-pupil allotments from the state. Volunteers from the community built a low wall around the school to signify its separation from its troubled surroundings. And family programs such as health services and child care are available in school facilities so parents with few transportation options can get one-stop help.

Family involvement is a key ingredient in Vaughn's success, says Chan. "My school is an inner-city school. Many parents are immigrants, and families live in garages. They have little money. But they put their kids first."

Although California's charter law allows the hiring of noncertified teachers, the decision makers at Vaughn Street School (Chan and the teachers -- as a team) choose to employ teachers who are certified. They have a good relationship with the teacher's union. After all, they have the same goal: teaching kids well. Still, Vaughn has Street some money by hiring more new teachers than the typical California public school -- something the charter law allows them to do.

And money is an issue. In the first year of operation as a charter school, freedom to make budgeting decisions led to the $1.6 million savings, which paid for the new 14-classroom technology building -- the Next Century Learning Center. In addition to savings on salaries, Chan negotiated contracts for meals, payroll preparation and transportation that provided equal or better service quality at less than school district costs.

A ROUTE TO REFORM?

California was the second state to pass charter school law. Minnesota was first in 1991, and 17 other states have...